A standard hand-operated device for transferring a film from a carrier tape to a substrate as described in commonly owned U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,849,064 and 4,853,074 has a housing made of two parts that are pivoted together. The housing has two rotatable spindles coupled to each other by a slip-permitting transmission. A cartridge is held in this housing and has fitting on the pivot pins a supply spool and a takeup spool for the tape and an applicator element at one end. The tape passes from the supply spool over the applicator element which is used to press the tape against the substrate for transfer of the film from the tape to the substrate. After the film is stripped from the tape, this tape is wound up on the takeup spool which itself is provided with a one-way brake allowing it to rotate only in one direction.
In such a system the cartridge contains the supply spool, the takeup spool, and the applicator foot so that putting a new supply of tape into the applicator is a fairly simple job. The cartridge is, however, fairly expensive since in effect it constitutes part of the applicator. Furthermore the bulky cartridge must be accommodated in the housing of the applicator, making the applicator somewhat bulkier than it really needs to be.
Thus it is known to dispense with the cartridge and to supply replacement tape as a pair of coaxial spools that are interconnected by a small loop of tape extending from the supply spool to the takeup spool. The old spool assembly is stripped out of the housing, then the new one is fitted in place. The user must then carefully pull out the loop of tape to span it over the applicator foot. If too much tape is pulled out, the takeup spool must be rotated to eliminate the slack.
This is a relatively onerous operation requiring the user to exercise some care. If the slack is not eliminated the applicator will not work. Similarly if the takeup spool is rotated in the wrong direction, more slack will be formed during the first several uses. In general such a reloading system is not ideal in a mass-marketed office product.